Is It Time To Do Something Different In Your Business?

Are you frustrated with how your business is performing? Are you struggling to increase your sales and profitability? Is your cash flow deteriorating? Are you working all hours but not seeing any progress? Are you finding that all your time is spent on the day to day running of your business? Are you feeling that your business will never get to where you want it to be?

If you answer 'yes' to any or all of these questions then maybe it is a sign that it is time to do something different in your business. So if you are feeling like this, what can you do?

Take time to step back from your business. If you are spending all your time on the day to day running of your business nothing will change, so you need to create time to step back from your business. You may need to get help in your business to enable you to do this or it may be a matter of delegating more to your staff or outsourcing some work or it may be that you can create the time by better time management.

Review your business with fresh eyes. By stepping back from the day to day and considering where your business is you will start to see your business with fresh eyes. You can also ask for feedback from your customers, suppliers, employees and other contacts which will also open up your perspective on your business.

Remind yourself of your business achievements. When you are struggling with your business it is easy to focus on the negative but consider your business achievements and remind yourself of the highlights and successes in your business. Consider what has worked for your business before as this may help you in deciding what actions you now need to take.

Be honest about where your business is right now. It is easy to carry on as you are and think everything will turn out okay however you probably know that this is very unlikely. Therefore be honest about where your business is right now. Look at all aspects of the business and make an honest and accurate assessment.

Identify where you want your business to be. Where do you want your business to be in 3 months, 6 months and a year's time? Where do you want it to be in the longer term? If you woke up one morning and your business was how you wanted it to be what would it be like? By getting clarity on where you want your business to be it will make it easier to achieve what you want.

What changes do you need to make? The next step is to decide what you need to do to move your business to where you want it to be. What changes do you need to make? What actions to you need to take? What do you need to stop doing? What new things do you need to do? Be creative, think outside the box, look at what is working for your competitors and consider all the options. Identify the key actions that you need to take to get your business to where you want it to be.

Prioritise your plan. You now have a list of key actions but where do you start. If you could change one thing right now what would it be? What is the most important action to work on first? Prioritise your key actions and break each one down into smaller manageable steps.

Take action. Don't spend too long in preparing a detailed action plan. Once you have identified the most important action you need to take and broken it down into smaller manageable steps start to take action. Taking action can be the biggest stumbling block for a business but once you start to take action and start to get results your business will benefit. Even if you find it is not working you can try something else. If you do nothing you will stay where you are.

Find someone to help and support you. The above sounds straightforward but actually doing it can be very difficult when you are trying to run your business and it can be challenging to decide what you need to do on your own. Therefore you may want to seek some help and support. There are many different types of help available including business mentors, business coaches, business consultants and even other business owners. Ask your contacts for recommendations, look at what is available on the internet or give me a call.

Regularly review where you are. As you know when you are running a business things don't always turn out as you expect so it is critical to keep reviewing how things are going and revising and updating your plans. Keep asking yourself what is the most important action you need to take right now to get your business to where you want it to be.

Build in time every week to step back and work 'on' your business. This is not a one off exercise. Successful business owners build in time every week to step back and work 'on' their businesses.